Andy profile picture

Andy

Never knowingly understood

About Me

Music bore. Film bore. Soccer bore. Do you see a pattern developing here?

My Interests

All the carefully-prepared info which once appeared here has mysteriously gone AWOL. Bear with me and I'll have it back here again before too long.

Music:

A work in progress. Deep breath....here goes:

David Bowie, Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, Kaleidoscope, Fairfield Parlour, Marc Bolan, T.Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Arthur Lee, Love, Sparks, Swell Maps, Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks, The Beatles and constituent components, The Beach Boys (likewise, apart from Mike Love), Alice Cooper, Julian Cope, The Teardrop Explodes, Kevin Ayers, The Soft Machine, Sweet, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Robyn Hitchcock, The Soft Boys, Runaways, Pink Fairies, Wire, Hawkwind, Kraftwerk, The Small Faces, The Faces, early Rod, Ramones, Peter Hammill, VDGG, Emitt Rhodes, Raspberries, Sex Pistols, Rolling Stones, All Night Radio, Beachwood Sparks, Slade, Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band, Skids, The Adverts, Metal Urbain, Rezillos, The Jam, The Attack, Fox, The Go-Team!, Pilot, Arrows, Roy Wood, Wizzard, The Move, Idle Race, Tim Hardin, Tomorrow, Mark Wirtz, pretty much any Joe Meek production, Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, pre-80s Status Quo, Super Furry Animals, The Sleepy Jackson, Bob Dylan, Elvis (both flavours), Television, Chuck Berry, Topper, Meic Stevens, The Who, Neu!, Turquoise, The Fairytale, Tim Buckley, The Equals, Ennio Morricone, Link Wray, Hasil Adkins, Can, Gyorgy Ligeti, Joe Simon, Erik Satie, Dantalian's Chariot, Marvin Gaye, The Band, Mick Harvey, Roy Budd, The Monkees, John Barry, The Ohio Express, Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel, 13th Floor Elevators, Roxy Music, Mick Ronson, The Archies, Mungo Jerry, Faust, Radio Stars, The Open Mind, Tangerine Dream, The Cars, Simon Dupree And The Big Sound, The Chills, Del Shannon, The Go-Betweens, John's Children, House Of Love, Phillip Glass, The The, Silver Apples, Jonathan Richman, Serge Gainsbourg, Shocking Blue, The Pretty Things, Brian Eno, The Thanes, The Green Telescope, Pixies, Beck, Ultravox!, Jacques Dutronc, The Feelies, My Bloody Valentine, The Nice, Supergrass, Jim Noir, Teenage Fanclub, Sandy Denny, Inspiral Carpets, The Red Crayola, Chocolate Watchband, Happy Band Of Japan, Television Personalities, Captain Beefheart, Graham Coxon, The Misunderstood, Squeeze, Bobby Womack, The Saints, Cat Stevens, Pere Ubu, Cornershop, Led Zep, Gabriel-era Genesis, Ivor Cutler, Donovan, The Kinks, Nick Drake, The Four Tops, Aberfeldy, Yes, XTC, Wreckless Eric, Spooky Tooth, Nirvana (UK), Cabaret Voltaire, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Devo, Harry Nilsson, The Lovin' Spoonful, Grauzone, Lee Hazlewood, Magazine, The Dickies, early Neil Diamond, Simply Saucer, Tommy James And The Shondells, B52s, R. Dean Taylor, Alex Chilton, The Sonics, Caleb, REM, Jilted John, John Shuttleworth, The Marmalade, Tintern Abbey, Chris Montez, Arcade Fire, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Jason Crest, Mrs. Miller, Doctor Feelgood, Salad, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Orange Juice, Edwyn Collins, Pernice Brothers, Adam Green, Wimple Winch, Blondie, Devendra Banhart, Fantastic Something, Clifford T. Ward, The Love Affair, Flamin' Groovies, Shoukichi Kina, Yo La Tengo, The Action, Adam And The Ants, Curtis Mayfield, Gram Parsons, Ffa Coffi Pawb, Andromeda, Lou Christie, Blue Cheer, Armand Schaubroeck, Tom Lehrer, Q65, The Nightblooms, The Association, The Left Banke, Procol Harum, Dinosaur Jr, The Residents, The Damned, Robert Wyatt, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Icicle Works, New York Dolls, The Clash, Mavis Staples, The Farmer's Boys, Air, Focus, The Aphex Twin, Fairport Convention, Syndicate Of Sound, Buzzcocks, Gandalf, Eddie And The Hot Rods, The Seeds, Badfinger, The Associates, 999, early Bee Gees, The Troggs, Blossom Toes, Stranglers, The Byrds, Gene Clark, Rich Kids, The Doors, Incredible String Band, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Galaxie 500, Johnny Cash, David McWilliams, Ray Charles, The Searchers, Judee Sill, Spiritualized, Chris Farlowe, Soft Cell, Marc Almond, The Shangri-Las, John Cooper Clarke, Fire Engines, early Cure, Throwing Muses, The Lurkers, Generation X, Ultra Vivid Scene, Denim, The Wedding Present, The Mirrors, Nick Nicely, Grandaddy, Paul Roland and so forth.

And digging out junk shop gems is my forte (Top of the Pops albums, instructional records, personality LPs, TV tie-ins, etc.) Never let it be forgotten that Uri Geller, Larry Grayson and Jackie Pallo really did make it onto vinyl....

Movies:

Warning: this list is a Steven Seagal-free zone.
Withnail And I, The Wicker Man, Kind Hearts And Coronets, The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Comfort And Joy, Gregory's Girl, That Sinking Feeling, Nosferatu, Roger Corman (esp. Creature From The Haunted Sea and A Bucket Of Blood), Laurel And Hardy, Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles, This Is Spinal Tap, Alfred Hitchcock, Carnival Of Souls, Month Python's Life Of Brian, The Descent, Play Misty For Me, The Girl In The Picture, Le Boucher, Blazing Saddles, The Ipcress File, Crimewave, After Hours, Escape To Victory, American Splendor, The Ladykillers (both), Sideways, All Quiet On The Western Front, most Carry Ons, Cold Comfort, Wings Of Desire, Night Of The Living Dead, Halloween, Kingpin, Dog Soldiers, The One That Got Away, Forbidden Planet, Metropolis, Robinson Crusoe On Mars, Hell Drivers, Koyaanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi, The Shining, Bottle Rocket, Evolution, Rebel Without A Cause, The People Under The Stairs, Village Of The Damned, Duel, Betty Blue, The Last Picture Show, Orlando, Hairspray, Back To The Future trilogy, Walkabout, most Hammer productions be they horror, comedy or both simultaneously, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The King Of Comedy, Taxi Driver, Easy Rider, Near Dark, Flight Of The Doves, 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T, Creepshow (the first one; the second was well dodgy), Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The Invisible Man, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Cool Hand Luke, Paris Texas, Das Boot, Silence Of The Lambs, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, Midnight Cowboy, The French Connection, Young Frankenstein, That'll Be The Day/Stardust, Zoolander, Whistle Down The Wind, Vanishing Point, Dazed And Confused, Fright Night, The Great Escape, Cinema Paradiso, Two-Lane Blacktop, The Amazing Mr. Blunden, Dirty Harry, American Beauty, Almost Famous, Soy Cuba, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Good The Bad And The Ugly

Television:

"I'm gonna shove my Telecaster through the television screen
'Cos I don't like what's going down.."


The Radiators From Space certainly had the right idea all those years ago, although I'm not sure I'd want to waste a perfectly good guitar in the process. A cheapo Telecaster copy maybe...

Books:

Or, more accurately, authors. Now, lemme see: John Wyndham, Franz Kafka, Mark Paytress, Alan Sillitoe, Jerome K Jerome, Richard Brautigan, William Burroughs, H G Wells, Jack Kerouac, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Julian Cope, Lawrence Block, T C Lethbridge, Clive James, Spalding Gray, Albert Camus, Truman Capote, Graham Greene, George Orwell, Colin Wilson, Daniel Defoe, J G Ballard, Peter Doggett, Aldous Huxley

Currently reading:

Heroes:

Oliver Holt and Victoria Newton: quality journalism at its finest and the closest we have to a latter-day, homegrown Woodward and Bernstein.

In case you were wondering, yes I was typing sarcastically...

My Blog

Beer drinkers and....egg collectors

Heavy metal star Lemmy has a new hobby - collecting the toys from Kinder eggs. The Motorhead frontman has demanded a supply of the children's treats as part of his rider at a rock festival. Orga...
Posted by Andy on Fri, 04 May 2007 12:56:00 PST

Diesel or phwoarrr-star?

A German petrol station manager called police after a naked woman pulled up and asked him to fill up her tank. Jan Matthausen, 56, from Chemnitz, said: "I was surprised when I saw a car drive onto ...
Posted by Andy on Thu, 03 May 2007 12:33:00 PST

Tractor tribulation

An Austrian teenager was run over by a tractor twice - once when he fell off and again when his friend drove back to see where he was. Hubert Hochstetter, 17, from the village of Kainisch, fell off...
Posted by Andy on Thu, 03 May 2007 12:30:00 PST

Sighted and overheard

Location: Reading town centre.Date: ermm...yesterday.Sighted: Upon departing Fopp Records, I caught sight of a man entering the shop and whom I recognised immediately as being Kevin Ashman, one of the...
Posted by Andy on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:14:00 PST

Man, 102, invited to play afternoon

(From Ananova.com)A 102-year-old man in Belgium was invited to a play afternoon at a nursery school. Jules Verdonck's family were surprised to get the invitation from the school at De Zevensprong i...
Posted by Andy on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:41:00 PST

The cheek of it..

(From Ananova.com)'Surgeon stole my bum' A German belly dancer has been awarded £12,000 compensation after a plastic surgeon accidentally sucked away one of her buttocks. ...
Posted by Andy on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:31:00 PST

Just a thought...

All this week in The Sun, they're giving away DVDs of 'horror classics', one of which is Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead". Would this be the same film which was eventually banned as a result of the 'video ...
Posted by Andy on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:16:00 PST

And they all started grooving

Is it odd that a morning spent rummaging through sad, teetering piles of neglected albums and 45s in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside should be the catalyst in recalling a long-forgotten, chi...
Posted by Andy on Sun, 18 Feb 2007 12:17:00 PST

Earworm of the Day

It had to happen. The fount of cerebral nutrition that is local radio (in this instance, BBC Berkshire) has provided sustenance in the form of the unpalatable, Pointer Sisters-shaped fruit which goes ...
Posted by Andy on Tue, 23 Jan 2007 01:09:00 PST

Zigazig urggggh!

Spice World tops worst movie pollSpice World: The Movie has been voted the worst film of all time.It was surprisingly followed by Oscar-winner Titanic - the highest-grossing movie in history.Grease 2 ...
Posted by Andy on Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:29:00 PST